Brownielicious Brownies

Ingredients:

• 1 1/4 pounds plus two tablespoons butter
• 1 1/2 pounds semisweet chocolate chips
• 6 ounces cocoa powder
• 7 eggs
• 3 tablespoons instant coffee powder
• 3 tablespoons vanilla extract
• 2 1/4 cups sugar
• 1 cup plus three tablespoons flour
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 350 F; grease and flour two 13×9″ pans. Toss 1/2 pound chocolate chips with 3 tablespoons flour and set aside.

Melt the butter and one pound of the chocolate chips together (use your preferred method: microwave or double boiler are fine). Set aside to cool. In a very large bowl, stir together the eggs, coffee, vanilla, and sugar. Mix in the cooled chocolate and set aside to cool completely.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the remaining flour, baking powder, salt, and cocoa. Add to the cooled chocolate and mix well. Stir in the floured chips and pour into the prepared pans.

Bake for 25-30 minutes or until tester is almost clean. Cool, cut, and enjoy.

There was a storm rolling in yesterday, so it was a bit warm and sticky. We were craving something sweet, but didn’t want to fire up the oven, so I started digging through my no-bake recipies for somethign quick and easy. This recipe started life as a no-bake peanut butter oatmeal cookie recipe, but once set, Mer immediately declared it “oatmeal fudge”. Chocoholics can add 1/4 cup cocoa to the mix to make chocolate peanut butter oatmeal fudge.

Peanut Butter Oatmeal Fudge

Ingredients:

• 3 2/3 cups rolled oats
• 1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
• 1 1/2 tablespoons vanilla
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 1/2 cups brown sugar
• 1/3 cup powdered milk
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/4 cup butter

In a large bowl, combine oats, peanut butter, vanilla, cinnamon, and powdered milk; mix until few lumps remain and peanut butter is well-distributed. Set aside.

Melt butter and sugar in a sauté pan or shallow sauce pan over medium heat; stir in water. Cook, stirring occasionally, until mixture boils. Hold at a rolling boil for 90 seconds. Carefully pour hot syrup over oat mixture and stir to combine. (This takes a bit of elbow grease.) Once mixed, gather the dough into balls (portion control is up to you) and place on sheet pans lined with silicone baking mats, parchment, or waxed paper. Flatten with a spatula and set aside to cool.

At room temperature, fudge will set in about 30 minutes; refrigeration speeds up the process.

The Players
One arrives home, hungry and tired; the other works tirelessly at the computer but lazes about when dinner is afoot. Minor characters as noted.

Act 1: The Pot
Water and chicken base join forces to make a broth. Corn and potatoes, separated from their cans, join the game. The party, now ablaze, bubbles mightily. Apple cider vinegar, sun-dried tomatoes, dried onion, celery salt, basil, and black pepper also contribute to the fray.

Act 2: The Arrival
Biscuit mix, born months ago from a marriage of flour and sundry other powders, bonds with its wet destiny to form The Goo. The Goo rudely crashes the party, dropping from above into the mix without announcement.

Act 3: The Serving
Ten minutes have passed since The Goo’s arrival. A large spoon arrives to disperse the gathering. Four to six smaller gatherings result.

Denouement
The players sit with happy bellies.

Exeunt players.

Yeah, I know. It’s been a long day, and dinner was surprisingly good for something that consisted of little more than canned vagetables and good thoughts.

Downtime Chicken

Ingredients:

• 2 lbs chicken drumsticks, bone-in, skin on
• 1/4 cup garlic paste
• 1/4 cup tahini
• 1 tablespoon whole black peppercorns
• 3 tablespoons ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 2 tablespoons dried minced onion
• Splash apple cider vinegar
• Splash lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon chicken base
• Dash celery salt
• 1/2 cup currants
• 2 cups water

Combine all ingredients in a large pot; cover. Simmer gently over low heat for 3-4 hours or until chicken falls off the bone. Enjoy your downtime.

It starts with mildly garlicky mashed potatoes. Take three pounds or so of russet potatoes. Peel about a third of them, quarter them all, and drop them into boiling salted water. Cook until just fork-tender. Drain well and cool slightly. Add a stick of butter, 1/2 cup sour cream, a tablespoon of garlic powder, and about a cup of good chicken stock. Mash roughly.

Make some beef gravy: make a semi-dark roux, and add beef stock. Whisk until thick.

In a bowl, layer some taters, canned corn, shredded cheddar cheese, and gravy. Apologize to your cardiologist, and dig in.

Oven-fried chicken, in my mind, was never meant to be a substitute for the real thing. Just like Cheese Whiz and EZCheese are their own distinct foods (and decidedly not cheese), this recipe stands on its own as something I crave. Crisp and sassy, juicy and full of flavor, you may just crave it too.

Oven-Fried Chicken

Ingredients:

• 3 cups whole milk
• 2 tablespoons white vinegar
• 1 tablespoon kosher salt
• 2 teaspoons dried thyme
• 1 teaspoon rubbed sage
• 1 teaspoon paprika
• 1 tablespoon ground black pepper
• 2-3 pounds chicken drumsticks
• 2 cups unseasoned breadcrumbs
• 1/4 cup melted butter
• 1/4 teaspoon paprika
• 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder

Combine the first seven ingredients in a large zip-top bag and add chicken. Seal bag, removing as much air as possible, and squish so that chicken is thoroughly coated. Refrigerate overnight.

When ready to cook, remove chicken and drain, discarding milk mixture. Preheat oven to 425° F. In a shallow dish or pie pan, combine breadcrumbs, melted butter, paprika, and garlic powder. Dredge chicken in breading and place on sheet pan. Bake for 45 minutes or until internal temperature reaches 165° F. Serve hot or cold.

Garlic-herb pork chops with cranberry-tamarind sauce over noodles with browned butter and almonds. It’s a heck of a mouthful, isn’t it? Okay, so maybe I should have named it “Pork a la Crappy Tuesday”, but that, while shorter, doesn’t sound quite so appetizing. I realized around 5:30 yesterday that I forgot to defrost meat in advance for dinner, and so grabbed the first thing I found that could fit in our microwave for a quick defrost: pork chops. I don’t advocate defrosting meat in the microwave, mind you. The edges get rubbery, and there’s questionable food temperatures going on in there…I’d omit it in the retelling for food safety’s sake, but it’s an important part of the story.

Right…so there I stood in the kitchen, with my mind on my truck rather than my dinner (I had just gotten back from the garage, and my poor pickup needs some major – although fortuntely warranty-covered – surgery). As the pork chops spun circles in the microwave, I tried to figure out what the hell I was going to do for dinner. It’s been a few months since our last major supply run (yes, we shopone a quarter or so for staples. We have a large freezer, a pantry that takes up most of our dining room, and we’re weird like that.) and so whatever I put together was bound to be some sort of refrigerator velc…er, refrigerator hook-and-loop tape. This is probably more accruately pantry velcro, but that’s neither here nor there.

Hm. Perhaps I should have called this Parenthetical Comments and Tangents Pork. Anyway…Ding goes the pork. I start with a basic dredge-and-fry, add a little citrus, a little egg noodle goodness, a little crunch…what started out as “WTF is for dinner?!?!” ended up as a plate of balanced flavors and yum.

I know that my pantry is a bit unique, and that many folks out there won’t happen to have tamarind paste, a handful of almonds, and rubbed sage just lying around, but experiment with what you do have! (Or make this as written…it’s quite tasty.) Kitchen experimentation can lead to Dishes of Awesome (like this), meals that are rather mediocre (I made hot dog and pea risotto once), and occasionally some spectacular failures…but you don’t find the Dishes of Awesome unless you try.

Garlic-Herb Pork Chops with Cranberry-Tamarind Sauce over Noodles with Browned Butter and Almonds

Ingredients:

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon garlic powder, divided
• 3 teaspoons dried tarragon, crushed, divided
• 1/2 teaspoon rubbed sage
• 1/2 teaspoon finely ground black pepper
• 6 boneless pork chops
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 5 tablespoons butter, divided
• 8 ounces egg noodles
• 1/4 cup chopped or slivered almonds
• 2 teaspoons seasoning salt
• 1/2 cup jellied cranberry sauce
• 2 tablespoons tamarind paste
• 1/2 cup dark rum

Place flour, 1 tablespoon garlic powder, 1 teaspoon tarragon, sage, and black pepper in a shallow bowl or large zip-top bag and stir or shake to combine. Dredge pork chops in seasoned flour; set aside. Preheat oven to its lowest setting (ours goes to 190°) and place a piece of heavy-duty aluminum foil on the top rack. Set a large pot of salted water to boil.

Melt 2 tablespoons butter in a large sauté pan over medium-low heat. Add vegetable oil. Add three pork chops and cook until browned on one side; flip and cook until just brown on the other side. Remove to foil in warm oven and repeat with remaining chops. Add noodles to boiling water and cook until just al-dente.Drain.

Heat cranberry sauce in a small pot set over low heat. Whisk occasionally. When cranberry sauce has melted and is smooth, remove from heat and stir in tamarind, remaining tarragon, and rum. Return to the stove and increase heat to medium-high. Cook, stirring frequently, until alchol has evaporated and sauce begins to thicken slightly. Remove from heat and set aside to cool to room temperature.

Over low heat, melt the remaining butter in the pan used to cook the pork. Increase heat slightly and cook until butter begins to brown. Add almonds and toss. Add drained noodles and toss to combine. Increase heat to medium-high and cook for 3-5 minutes or until noodles begin to color. (Take care not to burn the almonds.) Add seasoned salt and remaining garlic just before serving.

To plate, place pork chops on a bed of almond noodles and drizzle with sauce. Serve immediately.

What do you do when you crave sausage gravy but have no sausage? Well, we made beef and biscuits.

Beef and Biscuits

Ingredients:

• 1 pound ground beef
• 1/2 teaspoon fennel seed
• 1 teaspoon ground coriander
• 1/2 teaspoon celery salt
• 3 tablespoons minced onion
• salt and pepper to taste
• 3/4 cup flour
• 2 1/2 cups milk
• 6-8 of your favorite biscuits

Cook the ground beef in a large pan over medium-high heat, breaking the meat up as it browns. When it’s still barely pink, add seasonings and cook 3 minutes longer. Remove beef from pan with a slotted spoon so that the fat remains in the pan. (You may need to supplement with butter or vegetable oil if your meat is lean.) Sprnkle the flour evenly over the fat in the pan and whisk to combine. Cook for 2-3 minutes or until flour no longer smells raw. Add milk, a little at a time, whisking to combine. Mixture will thicken quickly with the first few tablespoons of milk but will loosen as more milk is added. Return beef to the pan, reduce heat to low, and cook for 10-15 minutes, or until sauce has thickened slightly. Serve over biscuits.

I was having a very, very crappy day when these cookies came into my life. Cobbled together from several recipes, they’re incredibly decadent but incredibly simple. I’ve made these several times since that day, and have managed to blow through a good portion of our frozen butter supply in the process (which is impressive, considering the quantities in which I buy butter.) These are officially fighting the Magical Mint Cookies for my all-time favorite. I think I might go make some now… Anyway, I hope that these brighten your day!

Butter Drop Cookies

Ingredients:

• 3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup butter (at room temperature)
• 2 cups sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup milk

Preheat oven to 375° F. In a medium bowl, whisk togetherflour, leavenings, and salt. Set aside. In a separate, larger bowl, cream butter and sugar. Add eggs, one at a time, beating until thoroughly incorporated. Add vanilla. Alternately add milk and dry ingredients, by thirds, until batter is smooth and homogenous.

Using a small disher or spoon, drop by heaping tablespoonfuls onto non-stick sheet pans. Bake for 8-10 minutes, rotating pans halfway through baking. Cool on pans for 10 minutes before moving to rack.

Makes 6 dozen.

Mushroom-Herb Soup

Ingredients:

• 1 gallon water
• 1/4 cup beef or mushroom Better than Bouillon
• 1 pound kluski noodles
• 16 ounces canned mushrooms
• 1/4 cup dried thyme
• 1/3 cup dried tarragon
• 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
• 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
• 1/2 teaspoon celery salt
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 tablespoon kosher salt

In a large pot set over high heat, bring water to a rolling boil. Reduce heat to medium-low and add remaining ingredients. Cook for 15-20 minutes, stirring often, until noodles are tender and flavors have combined. Serve with a dollop of sour cream if desired.